Dr. Frederic Berger
Senior Group Leader at Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna BioCenter (VBC), Austria.
Short Bio.
Dr. Frederic Berger’s research is mainly focusing on chromatin and epigenetics, especially in histone variants, plant sexual reproduction and life cycles. Dr. Frederic Berger obtained his Ph. D at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, UK in 1994. He then started his postdoctoral training in John Innes Centre UK, before moving to INRA as a permanent Research Scientist in ENSL, France in 1996. He was promoted as the Senior PI at Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory, Singapore in 2004. Since 2007, his group pioneered work on the role of histone variants and discovered new types of H2A variants. In 2014, Dr. Berger moved to Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology as the Senior Group Leader, to continue his research on chromatin and epigenetics in plants.
Abstract: Eukaryotic genomes are packaged into chromatin, a structure in which DNA is wrapped tightly around proteins called histones. Whether or not DNA can be “read” and translated into proteins depends also on its packaging into chromatin. Histones can be modified by so-called posttranslational modifications, such as methylation, acetylation, etc. The relationship between posttranslational modifications and chromatin states has been established. However, histones also exist in many variants – particularly in flowering plants, histones have diversified into a range of differing variants. How these histone variants contribute to chromatin states in eukaryotes was not known yet. We report that histone variants are as important for driving the chromatin states as posttranslational modifications are. Among four core histones, H2A variants appeared to be key factors that define and subdivide euchromatin, facultative heterochromatin, and constitutive heterochromatin into chromatin functional states. The relationship between these states and transcription will be also presented.
Time: Tuesday 16:00-17:30, September 19, 2023
Venue: New Biology Building, Room 143(生物新馆143)
Host: Dr. Qianwen Sun
